Field
The described embodiments relate to techniques for selectively performing a remedial action to maintain communication performance in a wireless network. In particular, the described embodiments relate to techniques for selectively performing the remedial action in the wireless network based on an inter-packet received power.
Related Art
Many electronic devices are capable of wirelessly communicating with other electronic devices. For example, these electronic devices can include a networking subsystem that implements a network interface for: a cellular network (UMTS, LTE, etc.), a wireless local area network (e.g., a wireless network such as described in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard or Bluetooth® from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group of Kirkland, Wash.), and/or another type of wireless network.
However, the performance of wireless communications among electronic devices can vary significantly over time. For example, interference can significantly degrade the performance of wireless communication. In particular, when there is a so-called ‘hidden node’ in a wireless-local-area network (WLAN), it is possible for two transmitting electronic devices (which are too far apart to directly communicate with each other) to simultaneously transmit packets to one or more receiving electronic devices in the WLAN. In this case, the interference associated with the transmissions from a first transmitting electronic device at the second transmitting electronic device may not be high enough to stop the second electronic device from transmitting. Instead, the interference may significantly degrade the communication performance (e.g., the packet error rate may be increased), which can result in more retries and increased latency during communication.
A similar situation may occur when two proximate transmitting electronic devices are using different but overlapping channels. In this case, a first transmitting electronic device may begin transmitting, and because the transmission is off channel it may not be detected by a second transmitting electronic device, or it may not be at a high-enough level to prevent the second transmitting electronic device from transmitting. However, the transmissions may be strong enough to impair the transmission of a packet from the second transmitting electronic device to a client device. Once again, the resulting degradation in performance may result in more retries and increased latency during communication, which may degrade the user's experience.